Lord Zeb
10-17-2009, 11:23 PM
During the months that have passed since the game was released, I have been contributing on this forum in many posts, and now I think I should gather my most appreciated posts and wisdom gleaned not only by my own work, but also what I agree with in others.
For a more dynamic and balanced battlefield, what I think is needed (on top of fixing Mounts, Magic and possibly a bit more realism about lugging around 300 kg in your backpack) is the following:
Let Armour influcence Stamina drain from Sprinting, Jumping and Swimming:
Stamina drain increase while Sprinting in Armor, that grows quite hard in heavy plate armors, that is reducable but not eliminatable by skills. Sprint should be extremely taxing for people in armor, especially at low Armored Combat skill levels, about the same level as the Armour penalty to Magic, or worse. That way studded leather would be a good choice for people for people that wish to remain mobile in combat, while those wishing to fight in rank and file should go for heavier metal armor... or realise that they drain stamina too quickly and then dies when they cannot attack or parry properly any more.
Same stamina penalty for armour should go to Jumping as well.
Swimming should also have Stamina drain, where regular swimming drain while naked should be about equal to normal stamina regeneration (at Swimming 100 skill without food or buffs), and both armor and encumberance increasing this quickly. Only Swimming skills (not Armored Combat) should affect this stamina drain. And on top of this Sprint stamina drain, if one swim quickly. If you do not have any stamina left, you sink. One can always remedy this by removing armour and stop swimming to rest a bit, to survive. (That is, Armour encumberance affecting both regular and sprint swimming stamina drain.)
A value showing the penalty should be displayed beside the Melee, Archery and Magic penalties in the Character display, with the title Movement, and a small explanation that it is regarding Sprinting, Jumping and Swimming stamina. Information of the penalty and it's harshness is needed to change the behaviour of people, as otherwise they will just do as usual and merely wonder where all their stamina went.
And to add to this even more:
Mounted Riders’ Stamina should be unaffected by wearer's armor or lack of such of regarding Stamina drain. However, adding Stamina to Mounts for Sprinting and Swimming, letting heavily encumbered Mounts drain more Stamina, would be interesting though. [Edit: Battlehorns should of course have a higher Encumberence limit, being so large and strong.] Implementing Sprint for Mounts would then let people on light armor have some advantage even on horseback if fleeing, while heavily armored people or people loaded with lots of loot probably won't catch them.
Retain the modifiers and fizzle rates from armor regarding casting of spells and shooting of bows, to keep mages and archers from starting to use too heavy armor. And then add increased Mana cost while in heavy armour! This should be about as large as the modifier on damage, and if not voluntarily making people changing armour, at least limit their magic use involuntarily when their Mana runs out. (Discussed in more detail in Poll: Reworking the Magic Damage System (”http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=211908”).)
[Edit: For those that worry about people in heavy armour lacking healing ability without magic... One shouldn't be able to heal much in heavy armour... one should have a Healer buddy that one run with, healing you up, and have the power to do so. Healing is mainly about Magic, and as space is limited, I address that question in Poll: Reworking the Magic Damage System (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=211908), where I state that Healing needs a boost. And that include Healing Potions, which is not armour dependant healing.
However, if one think that people in heavy armour should be doing such things there is an alternative that could be implemented: Giving Healing & Buffing spells Spell Options of removing Fizzles & reducing Encumberance penalties. A bit of a "Paladin/Cleric" magic option. Would remove the problems people have with healing in heavy armour right away.]
Change allowed Movement on the battlefield:
Archers and Mages not able to Sprint and shoot/cast spells at the same time, to not totally outmaneuvre the now less-sprinting heavy armored ones. Unless they possibly buy special skills/options for it, such as Jumping and casting spells, but with 30% reduced power. Putting Sprinting & Jumping into the same "allowance" would nearly eliminate Kiting, letting Melee recover the battlefield in it's proper glory!
Slower turning speed when Sprinting to remove the "headless hen technique". One can turn pretty quick while sprinting in RL, but not 180 degrees and then move full speed the other way. Some kind of physics engine would be nice, including acceleration and deceleration effects before full speed is attained. Now… there already is one implemented in DFO! Want to know where?
Jump into a body of water, sprint swim at full speed, then turn 180 degrees. Huh? What's that? Your movement don't instantly change direction?
In water, even if you make a 90 degree turn, it takes you time to accelerate back up to full speed. So, let’s apply this motion system apply to sprinting/running!
Right now, people can change direction instantly whilst both running and sprinting. It would be good if you maintained momentum as you do in water and couldn't change direction instantly. The greater the angular change in direction, the longer it takes you to get back to full speed. And instead of simply stopping to Sprint while moving sideways, let’s just use this inhibitor instead! (No Sprint speed sideway movement, but forward movement by sprint speed and sideway movement from A & D buttons should be combinable.)
Add “Combat Dodge” movement while pressing the Q and E buttons while not Mounted, to grant those buttons some use at all times. Combat Dodge movement should count as Sprinting in regard to Stamina loss, reduce Hitbox, as well as making an evasive movement that will vary depending on what other movement buttons are pushed together with it. (Length of movement increased if simulataneously Sprinting, direction influenced by other movement buttons.)
Change how Armour protection works, to make people want to wear armour even more!
Have armour protection rates varied more. Cloth and leather type armors protect more against magic, especially cold damage, fire DoT and electric damage. (They isolate well, while metal is a good conductor of both temperatures and electricity. And even if cloth is easily drenched in acid, treated leather and non-chain metal armor repells it fairly well.)
Would also be good to have Robes come in a few protectively enchanted versions, for even more variation. To let Robes be able to be Enchanted with even 3 slots (like Weapons) to make Transmuted Robes, would give Robes the edge over regular Armours it needs to make them competitive against armours, balancing this even with a great monetary cost. Having Transmute Robes boost specific Magic schools will also be good for Magic Role specialization and magic balance by people specializing at using specific schools.
Transmuted Robes and Transmuted Staffs should boost different things, to make the effect stackable without being too unbalancing. Would be good to let Transmutation of Robes add Casting Time modifiers and Resistance to the specific element damage (Magnitude boost for Spell Chanters?) to the robes. These bonuses should also stack with other enchantment bonuses.
Make even a few pieces of low-grade armor be worth wearing, so people will stop running around naked. Increase the bottom threshold of armor protection values. All armor protection levels should be boosted, but not percentually, but by an equal degree, percentually increasing the low-grade armors the most.
Making armour even more protective by changing the way Resistance ratings work, as they now protect more against low-damage attacks while leaving high-damage attacks almost undefended against by comparison. Just adding a 5% reduction in damage per point of Resistance, to grant a resistance bonus that scale with damage, would solve that problem.
Implement Heavier Mounts, to rule the day by being able to take down Archers, making Mounts vs. Archers be a valid strategy as it was in the medieval days. Mount Armor to train Heavy Mounts should be introduced. These could be slowed down to Sprint speed, making ordinary but more vulnerable mounts a little bit faster. Even heavier types with Battlehorn variants and other new Mount types to come could also be introduced. Have described this other threads, for instance in Making mount combat even more awesome (”http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=3640459&highlight=%22Mounted+combat+powerful%22# post3640459”).
This way even a few pieces of "inferior" armors will give a substantial amount of protection, so people have less incentive to run around naked. Choice of armor will become strategic, where static rank-and-file or mounted combat favors heavy armor, mobile barbarians and archers favor light armor, and magic users use Bone armor or Robes.
Hence 6 types of equiment will be promoted, balanced against each other:
Heavily armored Tanks, that stands around in formations protecting the line, moving decisively when needed. Is also where you make Equpment and Skill levels count, bashing companies into each other, grinding until you see who is the toughest; as well as protect others behind the line such as Mages from being attacked in Melee. Being stationary makes them good targets for Magic, both Buffs/Heals and AoE damage, so Mage support behind the line will count.
Lightly armored Scirmishers, melee fighters in light armor dashing around on the battlefield doing damage where they feel it is best suited, but taking damage easily if they cannot run away fast enough. Have trouble making a dent in a Tank line, but decent at taking out Archers & Mages (even if vulnerable against them).
Lightly armored Archers, running away when the Tanks come close, and then turning and shooting when they think the opposition is low on stamina or just far enough away.
Robed (or Bone Armored) Mages, standing away from the line and blasting the masses with magic from afar, protected by their Robes enchantments from the opposing mages & archers. (Unless the opposition's magic is stronger.)
Light Cavalry (unarmored Mounts) taking out archers or mages if they do not get shot down before they reach them. (Which they then at least will have a chance to, as the archers and mages won't constantly sprint, keeping the distance and then jump and twist-shoot you on the run.)
Heavy Cavalry, riding down gatherings of enemies making formations to scatter, keeping the Archers on the run, and able to stand the beating while trying to catch them.
This will still let people mix these roles as they seem fit, by accepting the costs in efficiency, and investing/training for long times to ease the limitation costs by skills and magic. It is for instance easy to change between Tank and Cavalry roles, as well as combining Scirmisher with Archer, or even Mage, even if you need to get the skills and gear to be efficient, training in different areas. And if one want to, one can be a Tank/Archer or Tank/Mage with Unburden spells, food and skills to handle it, or Cavalry/Mage or Cavalry/Archer even if one hops off one's Mount to cast spells or shoot arrows after maneuvering away. Still a Sandbox, if you have "soft" limitations.
You could then even add:
Mounted Archery with Shortbows that do 30% less damage than the Longbows only usable on foot. (No bonus to Bow damage for being Mounted, as Melee weapons get.) Need high Archery and Riding skills as well as a new Riding Archery skill to determine bow damage and a specially trained Mount with Studded Leather armor (making them identifyable as well as needing investments). Mount specifics are described in Making mount combat even more awesome (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=3640459&highlight=%22Mounted+combat+powerful%22# post3640459).
By this one gain mobility and striking power that will be really dangerous to Cavalry or those who try to flee, but are vulnerable to Magic and Archers that hit harder, and they have less hardy Mounts than the Heavy cavalry and cannot stand up in a toe-to-toe fight with them. Or Tanks, if they are trapped, as they likely need to be only lightly armored to shoot bows.
What then will happend is that if one want to start with Mounted Archery, is that one start over with Skill Rank 1, with an inferior bow that you need to buy a Skill to use while mounted on a steed that will cost you 2 times the Steedgrass and 1000 Gold pieces worth of armor, (which should require both Tailoring 75+ as well as Taming 50+ to make yourself,) if you have access to a Tamer with Taming 75. Takes quite a while of training before you can ride around shooting arrows doing even half your regular bow damage, so it will essentially suck if you do not have any use for that mobility.
It is also balanced even in the long run as even then you will still do more damage on foot with a regular longbow. But as long as you stick to it and do not run out of arrows, no one will run away from you ever again. Leading you into traps is another matter though.
Magery from Mount, but only when standing still (casting interrupted or held spell released prematurely if you move your Mount, or if your Mount is moved by Knockback effects), perhaps taking a little bit extra time to cast spells, to reduce number of buttons pushed from just to step off to cast spells.
After all, it doesn't take long to dismount to cast a spell, and less than a second to mount again, if one is skilled, so if one would cast spells that takes 25% longer to cast because one is on a Mount, one is probably losing time remaining seated as well as there is a chance someone jumps into you and breaks your concentration by moving the Mount that you would otherwise not be in risk of. But at least you have to push a lot less buttons.
Including one-handed Spear weapons so we can have proper mounted lancers as originally described in Poll: Separate Spears from Polearms - Mounted Charge! (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=179868):
Separate Spears from Polearms. All stabbity weapons small enough to hold in one hand (like Impalers) moved over, and maybe making a few extra versions. Also, make the Mahirim Ghost Claws into a trident-like Spear weapon instead, they're ugly now when they're no longer claws/knives. Chopping spears (i.e. Naginata-like) are to remain Polearms, and should have Slashing damage.
Spear abilities should be: One-handed weapons, Piercing damage, fairly fast, low-moderate damage, long reach. And: No wide swing mode! The two different "swing modes" would be forward stab and overhand stab, where the overhand stab is not usable in close melee but reaches over the head of the person standing in front of you, stabbing his opponent. (Unless you are an Alfar trying to reach over a Mahirim or someone standing on a stone.) NO Whirlwind attack with Spears.
Mounted combat with spears is downward stab to the side, and lancing attack forward, enabling a decent weapon attack while moving with your Mount. Special attack (instead of Whirlwind): Mounted Charge! Add half your Mount damage to your weapon attack if you hit with it, hence only usable while mounted. Front attack arc, so you need to be moving to attack with it, as if you are standing still your Mount attacks.
Make Seize special attacks pull down Parries, and granting a cooldown of parrying again of up to a second or two, based on Seize effect strength. (Small skill in Seize, you pull down the parry, but it goes quickly up again; a lot of Seize skill, you hold the opening in the defence open for a fairly long time that is easily usable.) Seize needs a boost, and people complain about Parries being drearily drawing out fights without a countermeasure available now when AoE's been fixed.
[Edit: As the Expansion added a new Special Ability for pulling down Parries, other measures are needed to fix the Seize special attack. For instance, it has no discernable effect if done to a person that is moving towards you, not to mention that the effect of pulling is quite weak. A proper fix to this would be to add a small Crowd Control effect to Seize: A ½-second immobility (but not Stun, still able to attack/shoot/cast/use items) would at least give it some usefulness. Would fix the bug that it doesn't have an effect to those moving towards you as well as limiting the "headless hen" mobility.]
Fixing Knives, letting it become truly dual-wield by swinging the knives twice with 2 individual attack arcs, which will give great DPS in the front for the truly skilled. On top of this make them Dexterity based damage, Attribute gain and Archer Armour-skill limiting combat ability to lighter armours to compensate will make them very desirable weapons for dedicated archers. Then put in a small Seize effect similar to the Polarm's Knockback, and make the icon have 2 crossed daggers instead of a single that can be mistaken for a sword, and we are done!
[Edit: Underwater Combat should be different than over water in many aspects other than simply not beeing able to shoot or use magic under water. Archery range should count as 100 meters per meter shot through water, effectively making deep underwater combat melee-based. All Melee weapons can be used under water, but Weapon Speed is doubled (working like a "Slow spell" for melee attacks), which accentuates the damage differences in DPS for smaller weapons and by that especially Knives. (People swimming with their heads over the water is not greatly affected by this, and can hence still fight Sharks and such with some efficiency.)]
With these additions, then the combat scene would become really interesting. Many of them are even possible to do as stand-alone enhancements, as well as should be fairly easy to program and implement.
Thank you for reading this massive Wall of Text, now please post what you like or do not like of what you read.
For a more dynamic and balanced battlefield, what I think is needed (on top of fixing Mounts, Magic and possibly a bit more realism about lugging around 300 kg in your backpack) is the following:
Let Armour influcence Stamina drain from Sprinting, Jumping and Swimming:
Stamina drain increase while Sprinting in Armor, that grows quite hard in heavy plate armors, that is reducable but not eliminatable by skills. Sprint should be extremely taxing for people in armor, especially at low Armored Combat skill levels, about the same level as the Armour penalty to Magic, or worse. That way studded leather would be a good choice for people for people that wish to remain mobile in combat, while those wishing to fight in rank and file should go for heavier metal armor... or realise that they drain stamina too quickly and then dies when they cannot attack or parry properly any more.
Same stamina penalty for armour should go to Jumping as well.
Swimming should also have Stamina drain, where regular swimming drain while naked should be about equal to normal stamina regeneration (at Swimming 100 skill without food or buffs), and both armor and encumberance increasing this quickly. Only Swimming skills (not Armored Combat) should affect this stamina drain. And on top of this Sprint stamina drain, if one swim quickly. If you do not have any stamina left, you sink. One can always remedy this by removing armour and stop swimming to rest a bit, to survive. (That is, Armour encumberance affecting both regular and sprint swimming stamina drain.)
A value showing the penalty should be displayed beside the Melee, Archery and Magic penalties in the Character display, with the title Movement, and a small explanation that it is regarding Sprinting, Jumping and Swimming stamina. Information of the penalty and it's harshness is needed to change the behaviour of people, as otherwise they will just do as usual and merely wonder where all their stamina went.
And to add to this even more:
Mounted Riders’ Stamina should be unaffected by wearer's armor or lack of such of regarding Stamina drain. However, adding Stamina to Mounts for Sprinting and Swimming, letting heavily encumbered Mounts drain more Stamina, would be interesting though. [Edit: Battlehorns should of course have a higher Encumberence limit, being so large and strong.] Implementing Sprint for Mounts would then let people on light armor have some advantage even on horseback if fleeing, while heavily armored people or people loaded with lots of loot probably won't catch them.
Retain the modifiers and fizzle rates from armor regarding casting of spells and shooting of bows, to keep mages and archers from starting to use too heavy armor. And then add increased Mana cost while in heavy armour! This should be about as large as the modifier on damage, and if not voluntarily making people changing armour, at least limit their magic use involuntarily when their Mana runs out. (Discussed in more detail in Poll: Reworking the Magic Damage System (”http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=211908”).)
[Edit: For those that worry about people in heavy armour lacking healing ability without magic... One shouldn't be able to heal much in heavy armour... one should have a Healer buddy that one run with, healing you up, and have the power to do so. Healing is mainly about Magic, and as space is limited, I address that question in Poll: Reworking the Magic Damage System (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=211908), where I state that Healing needs a boost. And that include Healing Potions, which is not armour dependant healing.
However, if one think that people in heavy armour should be doing such things there is an alternative that could be implemented: Giving Healing & Buffing spells Spell Options of removing Fizzles & reducing Encumberance penalties. A bit of a "Paladin/Cleric" magic option. Would remove the problems people have with healing in heavy armour right away.]
Change allowed Movement on the battlefield:
Archers and Mages not able to Sprint and shoot/cast spells at the same time, to not totally outmaneuvre the now less-sprinting heavy armored ones. Unless they possibly buy special skills/options for it, such as Jumping and casting spells, but with 30% reduced power. Putting Sprinting & Jumping into the same "allowance" would nearly eliminate Kiting, letting Melee recover the battlefield in it's proper glory!
Slower turning speed when Sprinting to remove the "headless hen technique". One can turn pretty quick while sprinting in RL, but not 180 degrees and then move full speed the other way. Some kind of physics engine would be nice, including acceleration and deceleration effects before full speed is attained. Now… there already is one implemented in DFO! Want to know where?
Jump into a body of water, sprint swim at full speed, then turn 180 degrees. Huh? What's that? Your movement don't instantly change direction?
In water, even if you make a 90 degree turn, it takes you time to accelerate back up to full speed. So, let’s apply this motion system apply to sprinting/running!
Right now, people can change direction instantly whilst both running and sprinting. It would be good if you maintained momentum as you do in water and couldn't change direction instantly. The greater the angular change in direction, the longer it takes you to get back to full speed. And instead of simply stopping to Sprint while moving sideways, let’s just use this inhibitor instead! (No Sprint speed sideway movement, but forward movement by sprint speed and sideway movement from A & D buttons should be combinable.)
Add “Combat Dodge” movement while pressing the Q and E buttons while not Mounted, to grant those buttons some use at all times. Combat Dodge movement should count as Sprinting in regard to Stamina loss, reduce Hitbox, as well as making an evasive movement that will vary depending on what other movement buttons are pushed together with it. (Length of movement increased if simulataneously Sprinting, direction influenced by other movement buttons.)
Change how Armour protection works, to make people want to wear armour even more!
Have armour protection rates varied more. Cloth and leather type armors protect more against magic, especially cold damage, fire DoT and electric damage. (They isolate well, while metal is a good conductor of both temperatures and electricity. And even if cloth is easily drenched in acid, treated leather and non-chain metal armor repells it fairly well.)
Would also be good to have Robes come in a few protectively enchanted versions, for even more variation. To let Robes be able to be Enchanted with even 3 slots (like Weapons) to make Transmuted Robes, would give Robes the edge over regular Armours it needs to make them competitive against armours, balancing this even with a great monetary cost. Having Transmute Robes boost specific Magic schools will also be good for Magic Role specialization and magic balance by people specializing at using specific schools.
Transmuted Robes and Transmuted Staffs should boost different things, to make the effect stackable without being too unbalancing. Would be good to let Transmutation of Robes add Casting Time modifiers and Resistance to the specific element damage (Magnitude boost for Spell Chanters?) to the robes. These bonuses should also stack with other enchantment bonuses.
Make even a few pieces of low-grade armor be worth wearing, so people will stop running around naked. Increase the bottom threshold of armor protection values. All armor protection levels should be boosted, but not percentually, but by an equal degree, percentually increasing the low-grade armors the most.
Making armour even more protective by changing the way Resistance ratings work, as they now protect more against low-damage attacks while leaving high-damage attacks almost undefended against by comparison. Just adding a 5% reduction in damage per point of Resistance, to grant a resistance bonus that scale with damage, would solve that problem.
Implement Heavier Mounts, to rule the day by being able to take down Archers, making Mounts vs. Archers be a valid strategy as it was in the medieval days. Mount Armor to train Heavy Mounts should be introduced. These could be slowed down to Sprint speed, making ordinary but more vulnerable mounts a little bit faster. Even heavier types with Battlehorn variants and other new Mount types to come could also be introduced. Have described this other threads, for instance in Making mount combat even more awesome (”http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=3640459&highlight=%22Mounted+combat+powerful%22# post3640459”).
This way even a few pieces of "inferior" armors will give a substantial amount of protection, so people have less incentive to run around naked. Choice of armor will become strategic, where static rank-and-file or mounted combat favors heavy armor, mobile barbarians and archers favor light armor, and magic users use Bone armor or Robes.
Hence 6 types of equiment will be promoted, balanced against each other:
Heavily armored Tanks, that stands around in formations protecting the line, moving decisively when needed. Is also where you make Equpment and Skill levels count, bashing companies into each other, grinding until you see who is the toughest; as well as protect others behind the line such as Mages from being attacked in Melee. Being stationary makes them good targets for Magic, both Buffs/Heals and AoE damage, so Mage support behind the line will count.
Lightly armored Scirmishers, melee fighters in light armor dashing around on the battlefield doing damage where they feel it is best suited, but taking damage easily if they cannot run away fast enough. Have trouble making a dent in a Tank line, but decent at taking out Archers & Mages (even if vulnerable against them).
Lightly armored Archers, running away when the Tanks come close, and then turning and shooting when they think the opposition is low on stamina or just far enough away.
Robed (or Bone Armored) Mages, standing away from the line and blasting the masses with magic from afar, protected by their Robes enchantments from the opposing mages & archers. (Unless the opposition's magic is stronger.)
Light Cavalry (unarmored Mounts) taking out archers or mages if they do not get shot down before they reach them. (Which they then at least will have a chance to, as the archers and mages won't constantly sprint, keeping the distance and then jump and twist-shoot you on the run.)
Heavy Cavalry, riding down gatherings of enemies making formations to scatter, keeping the Archers on the run, and able to stand the beating while trying to catch them.
This will still let people mix these roles as they seem fit, by accepting the costs in efficiency, and investing/training for long times to ease the limitation costs by skills and magic. It is for instance easy to change between Tank and Cavalry roles, as well as combining Scirmisher with Archer, or even Mage, even if you need to get the skills and gear to be efficient, training in different areas. And if one want to, one can be a Tank/Archer or Tank/Mage with Unburden spells, food and skills to handle it, or Cavalry/Mage or Cavalry/Archer even if one hops off one's Mount to cast spells or shoot arrows after maneuvering away. Still a Sandbox, if you have "soft" limitations.
You could then even add:
Mounted Archery with Shortbows that do 30% less damage than the Longbows only usable on foot. (No bonus to Bow damage for being Mounted, as Melee weapons get.) Need high Archery and Riding skills as well as a new Riding Archery skill to determine bow damage and a specially trained Mount with Studded Leather armor (making them identifyable as well as needing investments). Mount specifics are described in Making mount combat even more awesome (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?p=3640459&highlight=%22Mounted+combat+powerful%22# post3640459).
By this one gain mobility and striking power that will be really dangerous to Cavalry or those who try to flee, but are vulnerable to Magic and Archers that hit harder, and they have less hardy Mounts than the Heavy cavalry and cannot stand up in a toe-to-toe fight with them. Or Tanks, if they are trapped, as they likely need to be only lightly armored to shoot bows.
What then will happend is that if one want to start with Mounted Archery, is that one start over with Skill Rank 1, with an inferior bow that you need to buy a Skill to use while mounted on a steed that will cost you 2 times the Steedgrass and 1000 Gold pieces worth of armor, (which should require both Tailoring 75+ as well as Taming 50+ to make yourself,) if you have access to a Tamer with Taming 75. Takes quite a while of training before you can ride around shooting arrows doing even half your regular bow damage, so it will essentially suck if you do not have any use for that mobility.
It is also balanced even in the long run as even then you will still do more damage on foot with a regular longbow. But as long as you stick to it and do not run out of arrows, no one will run away from you ever again. Leading you into traps is another matter though.
Magery from Mount, but only when standing still (casting interrupted or held spell released prematurely if you move your Mount, or if your Mount is moved by Knockback effects), perhaps taking a little bit extra time to cast spells, to reduce number of buttons pushed from just to step off to cast spells.
After all, it doesn't take long to dismount to cast a spell, and less than a second to mount again, if one is skilled, so if one would cast spells that takes 25% longer to cast because one is on a Mount, one is probably losing time remaining seated as well as there is a chance someone jumps into you and breaks your concentration by moving the Mount that you would otherwise not be in risk of. But at least you have to push a lot less buttons.
Including one-handed Spear weapons so we can have proper mounted lancers as originally described in Poll: Separate Spears from Polearms - Mounted Charge! (http://forums.darkfallonline.com/showthread.php?t=179868):
Separate Spears from Polearms. All stabbity weapons small enough to hold in one hand (like Impalers) moved over, and maybe making a few extra versions. Also, make the Mahirim Ghost Claws into a trident-like Spear weapon instead, they're ugly now when they're no longer claws/knives. Chopping spears (i.e. Naginata-like) are to remain Polearms, and should have Slashing damage.
Spear abilities should be: One-handed weapons, Piercing damage, fairly fast, low-moderate damage, long reach. And: No wide swing mode! The two different "swing modes" would be forward stab and overhand stab, where the overhand stab is not usable in close melee but reaches over the head of the person standing in front of you, stabbing his opponent. (Unless you are an Alfar trying to reach over a Mahirim or someone standing on a stone.) NO Whirlwind attack with Spears.
Mounted combat with spears is downward stab to the side, and lancing attack forward, enabling a decent weapon attack while moving with your Mount. Special attack (instead of Whirlwind): Mounted Charge! Add half your Mount damage to your weapon attack if you hit with it, hence only usable while mounted. Front attack arc, so you need to be moving to attack with it, as if you are standing still your Mount attacks.
Make Seize special attacks pull down Parries, and granting a cooldown of parrying again of up to a second or two, based on Seize effect strength. (Small skill in Seize, you pull down the parry, but it goes quickly up again; a lot of Seize skill, you hold the opening in the defence open for a fairly long time that is easily usable.) Seize needs a boost, and people complain about Parries being drearily drawing out fights without a countermeasure available now when AoE's been fixed.
[Edit: As the Expansion added a new Special Ability for pulling down Parries, other measures are needed to fix the Seize special attack. For instance, it has no discernable effect if done to a person that is moving towards you, not to mention that the effect of pulling is quite weak. A proper fix to this would be to add a small Crowd Control effect to Seize: A ½-second immobility (but not Stun, still able to attack/shoot/cast/use items) would at least give it some usefulness. Would fix the bug that it doesn't have an effect to those moving towards you as well as limiting the "headless hen" mobility.]
Fixing Knives, letting it become truly dual-wield by swinging the knives twice with 2 individual attack arcs, which will give great DPS in the front for the truly skilled. On top of this make them Dexterity based damage, Attribute gain and Archer Armour-skill limiting combat ability to lighter armours to compensate will make them very desirable weapons for dedicated archers. Then put in a small Seize effect similar to the Polarm's Knockback, and make the icon have 2 crossed daggers instead of a single that can be mistaken for a sword, and we are done!
[Edit: Underwater Combat should be different than over water in many aspects other than simply not beeing able to shoot or use magic under water. Archery range should count as 100 meters per meter shot through water, effectively making deep underwater combat melee-based. All Melee weapons can be used under water, but Weapon Speed is doubled (working like a "Slow spell" for melee attacks), which accentuates the damage differences in DPS for smaller weapons and by that especially Knives. (People swimming with their heads over the water is not greatly affected by this, and can hence still fight Sharks and such with some efficiency.)]
With these additions, then the combat scene would become really interesting. Many of them are even possible to do as stand-alone enhancements, as well as should be fairly easy to program and implement.
Thank you for reading this massive Wall of Text, now please post what you like or do not like of what you read.